It's not just horrible, Possums, it's COMMON!
Dame Edna reacts in horror when she turns up to the liturgy to find that the sanctuary is wearing the same colour as she is.
HT to the Cooees boys - I couldn't have found a better picture to describe the horror at some of the liturgical shades that are currently adorning our altars. Jacaranda and agapanthus indeed. I almost gagged when I heard our PP proclaim from the pulpit on Sunday that "Crimson" was the colour for Advent (????). Thankfully, it was still violet on the altar...
Ms Harrington declares:
The liturgical colour for Advent, as for Lent, is purple. However, the mood generated by the readings and texts for Advent is one of devout and joyful expectation – not penance.Wherever did this nonsense about Advent not being a penitential season come from? Has she READ the Readings? Let's just take the first two Sundays in this year's Advent lectionary for starters, shall we?
ADVENT INot penitential, indeed...
Isaiah 64: "Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one that calls upon thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities."
ADVENT II
Isaiah 40: "1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
2 Peter 3: "11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! 13 But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace."
Mark 1: "4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
posted by Schütz @ 3:27 pm
4 Comments
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4 Comments:
This reminds me about those apocryphal stories about Eskimos who have a hundred different words to distinguish the various colours of snow.
Soon we'll be able to spot a real Catholic because they can distinguish a hundred different varieties of purple, and parse their liturgical significance.
My PP arrived on Sunday wearing blue. The good Dame would have been horrified.
Well I say everything went right straight to hell when they dumped the 40 day St Martin's Fast for this new-fangled purple four week deal!
Relax, just kidding. Maybe.
Here's the skinny the way I got it. Advent is indeed a penitential season, but not quite the way Lent is, which is why the purple is of different shades too. It's reprentance in the sense of preparation, and that on three levels, which is so full that uniquely it will culminate in three distinct masses on Christmas.
We recall collectively the preparation through the Old Covenant with Israel for the coming or advent of the New Covenant in Christ whose historical birth we celebrate at Mass at Midnight (which, there being no "pastoral sensitivity" in those days, will be at, well, midnight). We recall and deepen our own preparation for the advent of Christ in the hearts of believers which we celebrate at the coming of the first believers, the shepherds, in the Mass at Dawn (same deal, it's at dawn). And we recognise our continuing preparation for his advent on the Last Day when we shall for eternity all live in communion with the eternal God, which we celebrate in the eternal generation of Father in the Son in the Mass during the Day.
After we get all the theologians, scholars, and others who haven't a useful trade like car repair, to look into the times and context to discern what this really meant and then what it means now, any of that still stand up or was it just for then and need a little more doctrinal development and a dash of Sarum blue?
It's an example of Der Antirőmische Affekt, as von Balthasar wrote.
If Rome to-morrow said blue were the shade for Advent, these people wouldn't be satisfied and either go back to purple or agitate for white.
I personally think to wear blue in Advent would be lovely, as it would give the season a distinctive look and a pleasingly Marian touch, considering her matchless role in Christ's Incarnation for our salvation (since already in Spanish lands blue may be worn for at least her Immaculate Conception, and by custom many a priest has a white chasuble with something Marian and an awful lot of blue on it to wear on Our Lady's feasts).
However - if you want, ask the relevant authorities: petition Rome, just as indults have been ever obtained! If Rome will allow communion on the hand, why not blue? But in an organization, if you need permission, ask for it, don't be rude and plunge ahead irregardless.
There must be due order (as I believe Luther said against Carlstadt), since our God is the God of peace, not of chaos. Achtung: Alles in ordnung!
I wish David, Athanasius, PE and all true tranquillitas ordinis this Advent and ex hoc nunc usque in sæculum.
Well I suggested to my pastor in my former synod, who was on its Worship Commission, we should make an Advent hymn out of the old Elvis hit: Gonna have a blue, hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo Advent!
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